First: I think the one very specific question you had is on the prices of resources. I understand these are the (dynamic supply/demand) prices the resource gets when traded (modified by your commerce center component % rate on the base in question) and also leads to the initial build cost of a ship (e.g. units of resource * cost), which means some components and ships are way more expensive than others. In practice I don’t pay much attention to this, because scarcity is so rare past the first few decades of the game, but I believe this is any area modders and devs are looking at (adding scarcity to some degree). Will matter much more if you lower resource availability in game setup.
Second: I understand your wider issue of floundering with the gameplay - it reminds me a lot of when I was first banging my head against the wall with DWU.
Besides the technical issues - which are thankfully much better now - I think the biggest problem in DW2 is that the UI and design philosophy is largely unchanged from the first game. The UI is much easier on the eyes, but fundamentally resists the type of UI conventions your standard 4X/Grand Strategy player is used to - to manage nearly everything manually. It strongly encourages automatic play, from the default settings onward, when this is the least engaging way for a player to learn and also breaks from what genre fans are used to.
The shame is there is a very easy solution to this - a UI button/tab/corner of the screen, etc, where “idle” or “next decisions” accumulate. My preferred suggestion is this one, modified to also have a count of idle characters, etc too - unobtrusively flagging when actions available in each area of gameplay. The game already knows when ships, fleets, characters, etc are all idle, and uses this for the automation - but could just as easily have a little persistent popup reminding you to issue an order to that constructor, explorer, fleet, spy, ambassador, etc instead of using the automation.
- Example: There are global order queues, e.g. within mining, where I can bulk queue every available/desirable mine to be built as constructors become idle, but then I’m twiddling my thumbs for a few game years/decades as my automated ships make their way through that. I’d rather have a notification of an idle constructor, which then prompts me to review the list of possible mining sites, and then issue the order for the game to assign to that constructor accordingly - and repeat again in a few years (minutes in RL) when that constructor is idle again. In the current method, I mass issue orders and wait 30 minutes for the game to clear them, or fully automate and never know decide at all. In the suggested method, I am considering new orders every minute or so (for example) - same number of decisions, but spread out over time, and forcing me to more regularly go over my options, maps, etc - building familiarity and narrative with the galaxy I’m in.
In a wider game dev philosophy sense, I think the problem is on default settings they’ve collapsed the number of actions per minute to zero in most minutes of the game, instead opting for a very intense setup of automation settings and then infrequent (e.g. once per session) review of target queues. A strategy game should have players reviewing information and making decisions every minute - one could probably do a comparison with default settings of a standard turn based 4X, or Paradox GS, and find they are making minor decisions constantly. Other games, like Stellar Monarch, insist on less decisions of more import - fine, but still make the regular! DWU and DW2 collapse all decisions into a settings file, and leave many others on a simple “Yes/No” to an advisor prompt, which makes for extremely disconnected gameplay.
I know improved manual play is on their radar, but I think it should be/have been much higher - all it takes is a “next idle” or similar UI addition to empower the manual player to become involved in decisions minute to minute, and to actually want to think over the details of those decisions. This is what most genre fans expect when they buy this type of game. Then, if overwhelmed with too many choices (perhaps a few decades in), the advisor may suggest partly/fully automating this or that part of the game.
Ok, all of that said - it is possible to play the game in nearly full manual and have great time with it. This is my most played game in 2022, and I suspect will be in 2023 as well. I can’t get enough of if, and the improvements are really notable and I suspect will continue.
But, I find I am much more attached to my empire and diplomatic relations, empire development, military, research etc - the whole thing - because manual play forces me to consider/follow the narrative more closely and actively. Most automation is extremely boring to me, as it was in DWU; a few specific areas I keep automated because the UI makes manual mundane (characters - could be much better) or even with better UI that issue would remain mundane (per planet tax rate tweaks - awful setting this in DWU. Per planet resource reserves - even worse!). Ok, onto the actual advice.
Advisors and Automation (see img): Set nearly everything to manual in the policy settings, and then turn on the following to automated there and in the menus below
- Population policy
- Colony Tax Rates
- Colony Stock Levels
- Ship & Base Design
- Character Locations
- Intelligence Missions
- Troop Recruitment
- Fleet Ship Management
- Colonies and Tax - suggest Planetary Facility Building
- Construction - automate New Military Ships and Other State Ships
- Diplomacy - suggest for Offering Gifts and Negotiating Treaties
Under these settings, you as the player need to (cycling through the top left menus, above):
-
Empire - Funding levels - tweak funding levels for Reserves and Growth vs Research. I prefer to prioritize Growth, especially early, but others differ.
-
Diplomacy - set diplomatic strategy with pirates, independents, and other empires - which your automated ambassadors and spies will then execute on. Note - you must tick this from automatic to manual per counterparty in the diplomacy screen, or your decisions will revert to whatever automatic wants (based on race/gov diff) when the AI makes a sweep through this setting later. I set my strategy to neutral for any counterparty I don’t have a strong sense of yet. Choose at least one neighbor to be a friend, another an enemy, the rest will come with time.
-
Characters - will execute sed on your diplomat strategy (see more below)
-
Colonies - target new colony locations. Rule of thumb is nothing less than 20 suitability, unless you have tech to improve that after colonized. Target any suitable colony early; colonies that stretch your borders later.
-
Exploration - designate Abandoned Ships and Bases for idle constructors to repair and claim. All your explorers will be automated on their own, I find micromanaging this mundane under the current UI.
-
Resources - designate new mining locations. Under Resources sublist, switch from “Production Shortage” to “Priority”, which I believe sorts based on the same principles as the table at top and New Mining Locations list - years of stockpile remaining given current production/consumption rates. Under New Mining Locations, I only queue mines in the first page that have a resource with a red box (priority/shortage).
-
Ship Construction - build new shipyards, order new ships. You do NOT need shipyards at every colony. The AI avoids shipyards within a few systems of each other; my preference is one shipyard every 75m DU (distance units, my own unit…), which means I am one only one shipyard for quite awhile. By default the game will only upgrade shipyards from small to medium to large based on colony size, which I like, but you can override this manually by selecting the shipyard if you want (and I do sometimes, too).
-
Research - set research focus, target new research base locations - you want pretty much every one available, but its useful to follow to understand where they are and what you are missing, which can really impact mid and upper tech options available.
-
Military - set Fleet Templates and build fleets, which you will then assign to home bases yourself (if AI is on, will assign based on diplomatic strategy amongst neighbors); set Troop templates, which your planets will build as budget permits; queue ships/fleets to inspect threats via the lists under Enemy Targets and Dangerous Locations.
-
Civilian - target new Resort Base locations
You should, but don’t have to:
- Tweak intelligence mission parameters based on your risk tolerance - do they pursue only safe missions, etc
- Set some/all state ship/base designs to manual under “Role Upgrade” in the list of designs, especially early on, and then use the “Upgrade” button at the bottom to upgrade them - this will help a lot with getting familiar with techs and progression, which otherwise is easy to numbly gloss over.
- Set some individual spies to “manual” control and train them up on easy missions, which they will then get good at, and then when set on automate will pursue more of those. Otherwise they may be stuck in counterintelligence only until mid game techs boost their success probabilities. This also helps build attachment to spies when they are lost/successful!
- Set all ambassadors to manual and assign to a) help spy success, b) help improve ally relations.
When idle, I tend to cycle through menus on:
- Exploration (list of explorers) - just to observe how wide my net is cast, and maybe assess if I need more explorers in that mix
- New Mining locations, Mining list - see the flow of resources and what is available to build
- Military (esp a lot of time) - reassigning fleets to new bases and missions (automatically in peace time, or manually esp during war)
- Civilian - watch the ant farm
- Ship Design - I prefer to design my own State Ships and Bases, I have a general rule of thumb to do so a) before a new war starts, b) after a major tech like warp or engine has upgraded a new component. Otherwise it becomes too cumbersome to upgrade manually at every new component.
- This should make clear why I want that “next idle” or “idle count” UI - otherwise one may revert to OCD cycling of menus without a visual indicator that there is something/nothing new to review.
Edit: While I’m cycling through those lists to scan for decisions, I’m also review/zooming in/out on the main galaxy map. Each list will dynamically highlight different features of the live galaxy map - one of the coolest/most useful upgrades in DW2.
Other preferences:
- Slow or Very Slow Research speed - like nearly all 4X, I find research completes way too fast in DW2, making the flood of new components hard to process and thus nearly meaningless to the player. Better to slow research and really appreciate that new tech edge for awhile, notice the difference between tech levels.